NTSB Recovers Learjet 60 Left Elevator Miles From Greenacres Crash

NTSB board member Tom Chapman said Tuesday, November 3, 2026, that investigators recovered most of the left elevator of Learjet 60 N722BD, which crashed Sunday in Greenacres, Palm Beach County, Florida, killing all nine people aboard. He said the elevator was found in three pieces between 1.3 and 3.8 miles, or 2 to 6.1 kilometers, from the impact site, a distance that means it separated before impact and that at least part of the aircraft broke apart in flight.

The jet was operated by Aurora Aviation, doing business as Upper Jets, on a Part 135 flight from Austin-Bergstrom International Airport to North Eleuthera Airport in the Bahamas. Chapman said that about 12:47 p.m. Eastern the crew reported light, clear ice that was manageable and moderate turbulence at 35,000 feet, then precipitation and a request to climb to 37,000 feet. Less than 30 seconds after that climb was approved, a transmission announced a descent and a mayday; about 12:48 p.m. Eastern the airplane reported an overspeed condition descending. Chapman said crews expected to reach the water-filled crater as early as Wednesday and that it was not yet known whether a cockpit voice recorder could be recovered. About 600 nearby residents remained displaced. Earlier reporting on the November 1 crash is at Learjet 60 N722BD Crashes in Greenacres, Palm Beach County.

Key details

• Chapman said the elevator is part of the tail that controls the airplane's pitch, and that without the elevator intact the crew would not have been able to pull the Learjet out of its nosedive; at those speeds he did not know that it would have been effective even if it had still been attached.
• Chapman said the crew reported an outside air temperature of minus 47 degrees Celsius and altitude deviations of about 700 feet.
• Chapman said crews anticipated finding critical aircraft components in the crater.

What that means exactly in terms of what caused the aircraft to lose control, or whether the loss of this piece was a result of the forces on the aircraft, we don't know yet. But finding that piece is a very, very significant bit of evidence.

Why it matters

Finding a control surface far from the crater gives investigators physical wreckage that left the jet before impact, a different class of evidence from fragments in the hole itself. Chapman tied that find to further analysis, not to a probable cause.